Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Not Just Any CEO

Although I must admit I was not entirely surprised to learn
of Steve Jobs’ passing today, it is also true that I am more than a little
taken aback. I knew his health was failing even before Jobs’ as much as
admitted so when he stepped down as Apple’s CEO last August. I am, however, a
little surprised that the turning of this final page in his life has me as
reflective as it does. I am not a fan nor am I a groupie, but I am an admirer -
and it is not just because of my devotion to a superior product line built by
the company he cofounded less than two miles from where I grew up. That garage
where Apple’s humble beginnings were forged could have been any garage in the
sleepy Palo Alto/Los Altos/Mountain View tri-city area. A legend was born right
in our back yards by a pair of visionaries who were not much older than I am.

And maybe that is part of it. At 56, Jobs was not an old
man. Of course, 30 years ago my opinion of what constituted “old” would have
placed Jobs squarely in that category, but at 48, I’m thinking Jobs was just hitting
his prime much the same as Apple is… and I am. He was a man who had it all -
way more than just material wealth. He was (is) highly respected as a
businessman as well as a human; he was fiercely private in his personal life
and at the same time never shunned the spotlight when it came promoting his
company; he was not only a visionary, he was also universally recognized as
such; and most importantly, he changed the world. He made peoples lives better.
Millions of them.

He made my life better. Not in a big way, not like he touched
so many others, but Jobs provided me with products I could count on, almost always
without fail. That is how he touched perhaps most of us, but for some his
impact is even more profound. The employees of Apple are of course
beneficiaries of his legacy, but so are the thousands upon thousands of
employees of other companies that are peripheral to the market Jobs carved out
for Apple. Accessories companies, parts manufacturers, carpenters, plumbers,
even truck drivers and airplane pilots (just to name a very few) have a share
in the business Apple produced. And it all started in that small garage.

Apple is more than just a great hardware and software
manufacturer. And it is more than just knowing what the secret to business
success is. Indeed, it is hardly a secret, but one would not know it from the
many companies that come and go that cannot seem to grasp three simple
precepts. Apple engineers and produces very high quality products. Although it
is hard to go wrong when your quality is a notch above everyone else’s, that is
not enough. Apple also knows where their money comes from. The customer is
Apple’s number one priority and it doesn’t take much interaction with an Apple
employee before one feels like it. Finally and perhaps the most elusive part of
the secret, a successful corporation must have employees who are happy and
loyal. At Apple, they are part of a family. Throughout Jobs’ tenure, these three
factors have not only been policy, they have been culture and one that allows
them to charge top dollar because the customer is still getting more than he or
she paid for.

As much as the above will keep a company afloat for a very
long time, at some point new product ideas will hit a dry spell. Long-term
dominance relies on the insights of a visionary like Jobs who can not only see
the what the technology coming down the pipe can do, but can also develop
products based on that technology that we don’t even know we want. Yes, Jobs
did that. He transformed the way we do so much because his intuition told him
what we needed before we needed it. And he filled that need while keeping
quality high, his employees happy and loyal and all the while telling me, the
customer, that I am the most important person in the Apple organization.

There are people who wish they had what Jobs had. They envy
his power, his prestige and his money. But I wonder if they would trade places
with him now, to have all that and pass away at such an early age? I might –
not in exchange for his power or his prestige or his wealth – but for the
ability to make the world a better place for so many people. Steve Jobs has
done on a massive scale what too few are willing to do on even a personal
scale. I, too, want to change the world; I want to make it a better place. His
vision inspires me and his legacy continues to. Jobs will be sorely missed… and
he’s leaving some mighty big shoes to fill.